François Curlet

2010

Installation, 120 x 30 x 40 cm, 40 x 33 x 7 cm, 5 x 5 x 5 cm.
Materials: wood, drapery, perspex, metal, aluminium

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp / Collection Flemish Community (Inv. no. BK7731_M480).

In 2010, François Curlet visits the home of Clergyman Andras Pandy in Brussels, which had only just been released for sale by the police; it was a “psychological Bermuda triangle” where the serial killer, Pandy, had murdered six family members, later dissolving their bodies in acid. On his return from this voyage into horror, the artist carried with him a number of souvenirs, or relics, including the curtain of the small window at the front door and the spindles of a peculiar banister that lingered somewhere further on, objects which continued to bear the faint stain of those dramatic events. He converts these objects into new likenesses, for example, transforming the staircase spindles into open bird feeders. With the knowledge of these recycled objects’ history, the viewer is forced to pause and contemplate the power inherent of things and how they bear within them the capacity to channel evil.